If patents are worthless, how will invention thrive in the US?

by Chris Zappone

This New York Times article on the woes of a US tool inventor neatly encapsulates the challenges facing American capitalism both from within the US and from outside. It’s entirely possible Craftsman pushed through their own branded knockoff before a no-name brand version began shipping from China anyway. One the one hand, it’s a rapacious US company’s behavior. On the other, it’s the sheer scale of China and the influence of a system not beholden to patents or the western idea of intellectual property.